If, like me, you're one of the soon-to-be-former Danske Bank customers and are wondering what the hell is going on, the indefatigable Laura Slattery (her again) has a Q&A on the subject. Apparently you “do not need to take any action today”. Phew.

10:24

10:24

My goodness, a rave review from Donald Clarke for Philomena, described as a 'mainstream marvel. Read all about it here. And tara Brady's interview with its star, Judi Dench, is here.

10:35

More Philomena stuff. Here's an extended version of John Kelly's interview for RTE with the film's co-star and producer Steve Coogan.

10:41

So there I was last night, watching a very interesting edition of Newsnight, including a dicussion about Spotify's impact on the music business and an excellent report on the Chilean elections, when this happened:

Our monthly podcast from Ian Maleney highlighting the best new tracks from the dance music underground is here.

11:31

A deep tunnel snaking nearly 550 metres from Mexico under the border and into a San Diego warehouse is one of the most sophisticated underground drug smuggling passageways ever discovered, complete with electricity, ventilation and an electronic rail system, US federal authorities said . Watch the video here.

Lou Reed couldn’t sing, couldn’t play and often looked quite awful. He went a long way on minimal talent and immense genius, an ordinary guy who figured he could make more of this medium than most of its big cheeses were capable of sniffing. He was essentially a translator, mediating between the mudholes of the Mississippi and the manholes of Manhattan. He wrote songs about the unedifying and the unsayable, elevating truthfulness beyond morality, mores or manners. He rendered ugliness beautiful and beauty sad beyond belief. He believed you could do anything you liked in a rock ’n’ roll song provided you didn’t lose the beat.

12:24

The remains of 360 people have been found so far at what could prove to be the biggest mass grave from the Bosnian war in the 1990s. At the Tomasica mass grave discovered in September near the northern town of Prijedor, far more bodies have been found than expected, authorities said today. The number is expected to rise and could one day surpass the 629 bodies found at Crni Vrh in Srebrenica. See the video here.

12:59

Here's a fascinating piece about Barack Obama's relationship with the media in Politico. Apparantly the US president, who has a 'cantankerous' relationship with the media in general, likes to ask selected high-profile columnists in for regular chats in the White House. Wonder would Enda Kenny follow suit? The piece is highly critical of Obama for preferring to intellectually spar with those he considers his equals rather than doing the harder work of convincing the public at large.

" The president is a voracious consumer of opinion journalism. Most nights, before going to bed, he’ll surf the Internet, reading the columnists whose opinions he values. One of the great privileges of the presidency is that, when so inclined, he can invite these columnists to his home for meetings that can last as long as two-and-a-half hours.

“It’s not an accident who he invites: He reads the people that he thinks matter, and he really likes engaging those people,” said one reporter with knowledge of the meetings. “He reads people carefully — he has a columnist mentality — and he wants to win columnists over,” said another.'

Former solicitor Thomas Byrne feared he was “going to be killed” in the days before his Dublin practice was closed in 2007.Giving evidence at his trial this morning, Mr Byrne said when he learned that a colleague was going to report him to the Law Society, he agreed to meet a woman at a Centra in Rathmines.There, she brought him into a walk-in freezer at the back of the shop. “I thought I was going to be killed. I really did,” he told the court.Instead, the woman - a relative of a business associate - handed Mr Byrne €10,000 in cash and gave him a hug. Mr Byrne said he then took a ferry to Holyhead and drove to London.Read the full report here.

14:32

Dan Keenan reports that 34 Irish pubs are included in the new Michelin Eating Out in Pubs guide 2014 published today - a rise of four on last year’s publication.

However only 15 counties in both parts of Ireland have a Michelin reference and Dublin city has only one recommended pub.Co Down tops the list with seven recommended pubs, while Co Cork has six, Co Clare has four and Co Mayo has three. Counties Galway, Kerry and Kildare have two each.